Greenhouse' first seminar focused on the filmmakers declaration of intentions and the projects synopses. From the very first meeting between the filmmakers and their personal mentors up to the last conclusive gathering which followed the first projects presentations.

The filmmakers participated in a master class by the British director and former Greenhouse mentor Marc Isaacs. Isaacs presented the evolution of his career from a BBC production assistant to becoming one of the most unique voices in today's British documentary cinema. Isaacs talked about his way of choosing characters and creating intimacy, his use in special locations and their connection to the characters and the differences between cinematic filmmaking and journalistic filmmaking.

In addition, the participants were given a lecture by Yair Lev titled: "Project's References". In the lecture Mr. Lev presented the connection and similarity between Greenhouse' projects to outstanding films which successfully dealt with the same topics, questions and narrative dilemmas, both ethical and stylistic.In preparation for the next seminar, more lectures were held by Hans Robert EisenhauerandSteven Seidenberg. Eisenhauer's lecture focused on the transition from the synopsis stage to the treatment stage, while emphasizing the main goal of a treatment: "Showing on the paper what's going to happen in the film".

In his lecture Seidenberg talked about trailers, their significant importance and the right way to create a good trailer which supports the filmmakers pitching.

The Greenhouse second seminar was dedicated to two essential aspects of the projects' development and preliminary work on the trailers.

The renowned French director, Nicolas Philibert (Être et Avoir), held a master. Through a continuous dialogue with the participants, Philibert put an emphasis on the importance of the unbiased observation of reality, intuition and a personal voice in filmmaking.

As a commissioning editor of ARTE/ZDF, Hans Robert Eisenhauer gave a lecture about the way he supervises the production of films he commissions, how projects are selected according to the various demands of the TV.

Prominent French producer Serge Gordey gave a lecture dedicated to the tools a producer has when financing his film. Furthermore, Gordey had one-on-one meetings with the participants in which he reviewed the projects' budget and advised about the development work and the production possibilities.

The final day was dedicated to the project's presentation; each participant had 15 minutes to present his project and then received feedback from the mentors, staff and other participants.

Third Seminar - Izmir, Turkey - March 2009

20 filmmakers representing 6 MEDA countries, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and Israel participated in the third seminar which took place in Izmir, Turkey March 19th – 23rd, 2009.

The final seminar dealt with fine tuning the participant's trailers and the issue of "How to pitch a project".

The participants fine tuned their trailers with professional editors, Joelle Alexis& Ron Goldman and worked with their personal mentors: John Appel, Bettina Hatami, Steven Seidenberg and Hans Robert Eisenhauer on their final production packages.

In the framework of this seminar a pitching workshop was held, moderated byLucinda Broadbent, an international award winning producer and by Greenhouse' mentor Steven Seidenberg. The filmmakers simulated their presentation in front, Greenhouse' partner Mr. Antonio Saura, a prominent producer from Spain, Greenhouse' mentors and team and the pitching workshop moderators. Further preparations for the pitching event included one-on-one meetings with Lucinda Broadbent who prepared the filmmakers for the pitching forum.

Pitching Forum

The filmmakers presented their trailers and final production files in a pitching forum in front of top leaders from the international documentary industry:

At the end of the pitching forum, the 12 panel members selected "Voice of My Father" (Turkey) as the best Greenhouse III project. Claire Aguilar, Vice President of Programming for ITVS (USA), awarded a $15,000 development grant to Zeynel Dogan, director, and Melisa Onel, producer for their film.